1. Which of the possible venues do you think would best suit this play? Why do you believe the dramatic action would be best served in this venue? I believe that an intimate setting such as an arena would be best suited for this play. Although proscenium arches are most ubiquitous, I feel that scenes such as being in the car or photography studio as well as the Northern restaurant would most accurately reflect the intimacy of those moments, not a large, vacuous space that a proscenium arch would provide. Most of the dialogue that lends hand to character development and provides an insight into the intentions of the characters occurs in these vulnerable, intimate moments. Having a stage that can portray that without feeling distant or estranged from the audience would be best.
2. What are some of the design challenges posed by the play? Most of the play occurs in tight, intimate quarters, which poses a challenge to design sets that are wide-spanning, such as proscenium arches. Moreover, the scenes that take place in the cars would be difficult to translate on stage, particularly with the final scene where we discover the first driving lesson that Lil Bit received from her uncle; how the set demanded the characters to be positioned would have been difficult to translate.
3. Choose the various chorus characters and discuss how you see them dressed. In what ways do you think the costumes you describe would help articulate their purpose in this play? Perhaps when hearing the word chorus I immediately think of Shakespearean plays, but when visualizing the chorus I pictured persons adorning roman robes. If I were to reimagine the chorus I would picture the teenage chorus wearing the threads and the popular fashion of the decade, long skirts, oxfords, and all. I feel as though how the narrative was presented, the chorus wearing the roman garb would not come as much of a surprise to me, as the narrative to me felt and reminded me much of a hero’s tale, albeit a much less epic one. I felt as if the chorus told and conveyed parts of a story akin to the muses in the Disney movie Hercules.
4. Provide some ideas about the use of light in the play? When the characters of Lil Bit and Uncle Peck are mocking being in a car, the stage could illuminate each of them with their own spotlight, akin to headlights. This would be fitting as it would serve a theatrical as well as metaphorical use as it symbolizes through conversation and dialogue between the characters howe the ausinced gets a better sense of who the characters are, and are able to discern or “illuminate”their emotions and dig through their emotional complexities,
5. Suggest music and sound effects that could help accentuate the mood or atmosphere of the play. Apart from playing the songs that were suggested in the playwright’s notes, I feel that a score of some sort would be extremely beneficial to the emotion of the play, particularly in the sensitive moments within the play(the dinner, the playboy scene, the scene where Lil Bit leaves the family table after her grandfather’s lewd jokes). Since the play has the motif of driving, the inclusion of sound effects such as car horns during particularly sensitive parts where Lil Bit feels as if she is making a mistake before hesitating would benefit the emotion of particular scenes.
I believe that an intimate setting such as an arena would be best suited for this play. Although proscenium arches are most ubiquitous, I feel that scenes such as being in the car or photography studio as well as the Northern restaurant would most accurately reflect the intimacy of those moments, not a large, vacuous space that a proscenium arch would provide. Most of the dialogue that lends hand to character development and provides an insight into the intentions of the characters occurs in these vulnerable, intimate moments. Having a stage that can portray that without feeling distant or estranged from the audience would be best.
2. What are some of the design challenges posed by the play?
Most of the play occurs in tight, intimate quarters, which poses a challenge to design sets that are wide-spanning, such as proscenium arches. Moreover, the scenes that take place in the cars would be difficult to translate on stage, particularly with the final scene where we discover the first driving lesson that Lil Bit received from her uncle; how the set demanded the characters to be positioned would have been difficult to translate.
3. Choose the various chorus characters and discuss how you see them dressed. In what ways do you think the costumes you describe would help articulate their purpose in this play?
Perhaps when hearing the word chorus I immediately think of Shakespearean plays, but when visualizing the chorus I pictured persons adorning roman robes. If I were to reimagine the chorus I would picture the teenage chorus wearing the threads and the popular fashion of the decade, long skirts, oxfords, and all. I feel as though how the narrative was presented, the chorus wearing the roman garb would not come as much of a surprise to me, as the narrative to me felt and reminded me much of a hero’s tale, albeit a much less epic one. I felt as if the chorus told and conveyed parts of a story akin to the muses in the Disney movie Hercules.
4. Provide some ideas about the use of light in the play?
When the characters of Lil Bit and Uncle Peck are mocking being in a car, the stage could illuminate each of them with their own spotlight, akin to headlights. This would be fitting as it would serve a theatrical as well as metaphorical use as it symbolizes through conversation and dialogue between the characters howe the ausinced gets a better sense of who the characters are, and are able to discern or “illuminate”their emotions and dig through their emotional complexities,
5. Suggest music and sound effects that could help accentuate the mood or atmosphere of the play.
Apart from playing the songs that were suggested in the playwright’s notes, I feel that a score of some sort would be extremely beneficial to the emotion of the play, particularly in the sensitive moments within the play(the dinner, the playboy scene, the scene where Lil Bit leaves the family table after her grandfather’s lewd jokes). Since the play has the motif of driving, the inclusion of sound effects such as car horns during particularly sensitive parts where Lil Bit feels as if she is making a mistake before hesitating would benefit the emotion of particular scenes.